Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-08-11
TRICKS OF JEWELERS..
How Credulous People Give the Scheming
Lapidary Something to Do.
knOWL.

How Credulous People Give the Scheming
Lapidary Something to Do.
''A great many people find transparent
pebbles, take them to be cut, and often
get back a stone twice the size of the Or
iginal." said jeweler to New York
Tribune reporter. Sometimes they no.
tice the difference, but generally they
don't. Well, now, suppose you take an
interesting walk with your young lady,
find pebble, and intend to have it cut
and presented it to her as a memento Of
the occasion. You carry it to la pidary.
What does the lapidary do? AS soon as
your back is turned he chucks your peb
BILE out of the window, selects a ready
cut stone from his collection as near the
size of yours as possible-if he can't get
one the same he takes bigger one, thus
showing a sublime knowledge of human
nature. You call, pay for the cutting
and your girl wears the lapidary's stone
contentedly. Where ignorance is bliss,
you know. The fact is that these ready
cut pebbles can be brought from abroad
at about one-tenth the cost of cutting.
They are extremely common in some
countries.
Nov, I'll give away one more inter
esting fact. At enc of our fashionable
watering places-I dare say about the
most fashionable in the northern states
the local lapidary does a nice business in
moonstones. This is how he does it: He
has few on view, and if a stranger asks
abont them he is told that they are to be
found on the beach, and that they are
we'll worth looking for. The gulless
stranger straightway begins to take his
seashore constitutionals, with his eyes
fixed on the ground. By and by he finds
pebble and takes it to she lapidary.
'''Sure enough. You've struck moon
stone. 'Your luck's in says the man,
who so palp pilates in philanthropy that he
puts all his brethren in the way of pick
ing up precious stones as pigeon picks up
peas.
"'Better take it and cut it for me- says
the stranger.
"'Certainly,' replies the philanthropist.
Accordingly the stranger departs and
comes again in few days. He receives
a genuine moonstone; but when it is I'M
derstOod that it costs the lapidary much
less than his charge for the fictitious cut
ting it will be seen how he comes out
ahead.
'But we in America are not so far aG-
vanced as they are at Brighton, England,
where bogus emeralds are continually
being found and cut, the supply being
kept up by green grass thrown into the
water, SO as to give the lapidaries some
thing to do.
"By the way, must tell you of some
curious things that have come under my
observation. In Montana pretty little
red, green, and blue sapphires are often
found IN the sluice boxes when washing
for gold. In Arizona garnets, called
there rubies, and peridots, known as
Jobs tears from their form, are found
frequently on ant-hills, whittier they have
been carried by ants and scorpions.
Again, there are microscopic diamonds.
These have been discovered in American
platinum sand.'
They must be rather small. Might
make breastpin for a fly, I SUPPOSED"
''No, they wouldn't. I think they would
hardly be big enough for a mosquito -
said the expert. Then he reached down a
box and began 80 finger fortune in jew
els, and the reporter departed for fear of
kleptomania.